Sunday July 12th 11:03 PM Central

Today was much better for me than yesterday with the exception of no sleep. Don was up and down all night. He doesn't remember being up all the time - I think it is the Ambien. So anyway I was up watching him through out the night. I finally gave it up and got up about 8:30. We ate breakfast and got ready for church. Don had been on the internet at 2:30 this morning researching churches and found a Church of God in Checotah about 8 miles away. We were all set to head there and just as I was putting on my makeup Don noticed some folks in Sunday attire at the clubhouse. He went out to ask about church services here and there was a sign on the door that service would begin at 10:30. We made it just in time to grab a seat before they started. I am not sure the denomination of the minister that preached but he was an ex navy Chaplin. The song books we used were Baptist Hymnals and the choir director had attended Church of Christ. I knew most of the songs we sang although most of them were a capela. One elderly lady approached me after church and said "I have decided that you are either Pentecostal or a song I leader." I explained that was Pentecostal but have been very involved in music at church. She stated that she was Assemblies of God. We spoke to a few more folks and headed back over to the camper (the clubhouse is right behind our camper oh and the tornado shelter is located there too!). We had noticed a huge Motor Coach 2 spots over and the folks were just coming in so Don spoke to them and asked them the length of the home. It was a 42' with one slide out. This thing is huge and very posh. The lady Gail - took me in for a tour. They work for a company like Charter Tours only everyone goes in their respective motor homes. Sounds very interesting. Anyway after spending about 10 minutes talking to them I was literally drowning in sweat (we were outside the entire time except for the 5-10 minute tour). We came in to our totally in the dark home (all the shades were closed to keep the heat out) and just sat down and looked over some literature they had given us. After about an hour of trying to cool down we decided to go into Muskogee. Well either I am wrong about Merle Haggard being from there or they don't care. There wasn't a single sign about him anywhere and although it was a bigger city than I expected - they didn't have a Wal-Mart. They did have a little Amish bulk store so we stopped in just for the fun of it. As I was leaving I asked if there happened to be an Amish community close by. The lady said yes about 40 miles up Hwy 69. We traveled to where she said the community was, a town called Chouteau (SHOWTOE) but there was only an Amish Furniture store and an Amish Cheese store. Don noticed a cop and decided to go back and ask him about the community. He said yes it was the town just before Chouteau and it was called Mazie. We made our way back up 69 about 10 miles or so and turned out this little country road. It was almost like being back in OH. The road then turned into gravel and we began to see the buggy tire tread in the gravel road. We just road around and kept following the tire tread and other "significant trails" that the horses and buggies were leaving behind. We did come up on some farms but some of them had electricity and vehicles. Most all of the farms had tractors but the farms seemed to be much bigger than the ones in OH. So we are figuring it is much easier on the man of the house and his livestock if he uses modern equipment not only because of the farm size, but these 110 degree temperatures. Anyway off in the distance I spotted a bunch of orange triangles at the back of a farm house. I told Don I bet it was church services for the day. Sure enough when we reached the farm, there were several buggies and horses unhitched but still wearing their harness. Although we saw quite a few farms and several buggies, we didn't see anyone riding in a buggy. However I totally understand. I will skip forward for just a minute here. As Don and I were eating supper he was pouring the sweat and I was not far behind him with both AC units running full blast and it was after 8:00 I thought of those Amish folk who at that very moment was much hotter than me and had no relief. Kinda puts thing in perspective doesn't it. Anyway, we did see a few boys all gathered up together riding their bicycles in there black Sunday pants, white shirts and bare feet. They were so cute! Also there were a couple of girls sitting inside a screened in porch. We did see another little toddler heading to the barn in just his diaper. I so wanted to take pictures of all those kids but didn't want to offend any of them. We headed back to Checotah (the locals pronounce it SHECKATAH) and we passed a sign that said home of Carrie Underwood. I didn't know this was where she was from. So we pulled over and snapped a couple of shots of that sign. We headed over to Wal-Mart where I am sure Carrie has shopped since it is the only one around for a few miles, and picked up some things we need before leaving tomorrow. On the way in the parking lot was a bank and temperature read 111 degrees at 5:56 in the evening! I told you it is hot here!!! About 7:00 we headed back to the campground and went around by the lake. It is beautiful. We saw a really large white bird that had long legs like a stork. I think it is called an Egret. It was just walking along the shoreline grabbing fish and feeding. After about 20 plus shots at the lake (62 in all today - have I mentioned I am so thankful for digital cameras?) we headed in for supper. We just warmed up some left overs because again it is just too hot to cook. After supper I began to work on some crocheting and Don mapped out our route for tomorrow. It seem we will be staying Perryville, Arkansas tomorrow and Tuesday. Tonight's picture is of Amish country we saw today.